Pillarization
‘We have six broadcasting licenses and a number of those licenses are shared with other broadcasters. That is a technical solution,” says Slagter. ‘I have said in the past: there is a front door to public broadcasting, but no back door. So some broadcasters might also say: maybe our mission is over and we’ll stop. Why would that be crazy? We have had the pillarisation.’
Broadcasters stop
The Omroep MAX boss says he has ‘quite a few suggestions’ for broadcasters that could perhaps stop, ‘but I’m not going to mention them here’. Slagter does see an opportunity to cut the number of broadcasters, for example by sharing a license. “You can now very easily enter the order with 50,000 members, so perhaps that should also be looked at,” he suggests.
Yet Slagter finds the character of the NPO as it is important. ‘That external diversity from Ongehoord Nederland to the VPRO, that sound represents the Netherlands and that is what I stand for,’ he says. “And I think we should continue to have that.”
